Broward County Criminal Lawyers

Drug Possession and Trafficking Charges

Many people are surprised to learn that they can be arrested for merely being in the vicinity of illegal drugs or controlled substances. In fact, where police discover drugs located within, say, the center console of a car, they can arrest everyone in the vehicle on grounds that they are in “constructive possession” of the substance. The drugs do not need to be in your pocket and others can be present as well. A person can also be charged with “drug trafficking” based solely on the quantity of drugs found in their possession. Numerous defenses to drug charges exist and need to be aggressively argued by a skillful criminal defense attorney.

Driving Under the Influence charges are a very common occurrence in South Florida and require a strong defense. For years, the traditional advice given by criminal defense attorneys has been not to blow or participate in field sobriety exercises. This advice has been complicated by the recent passage of a state statute criminalizing the refusal to submit to DUI testing during a first-time DUI. A refusal on a first-time DUI now constitutes a second-degree misdemeanor and carries a 12-month driver’s license suspension, while a second refusal is a first-degree misdemeanor and carries an 18-month driver’s license suspension. It pays to know whether may be slightly or are well over the limit. In Florida, blowing a 0.00 BAL does not necessarily mean you will be released. You can still be held overnight on suspicion of driving under the influence of narcotics, and test results can take months to come back from the laboratory. Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties offer diversion programs to first time offenders depending on the specific facts of your case. Cases involving “serious bodily injury” – a category which spans anything from a broken leg to a coma – are all aggressively prosecuted and can result in years in prison. A knowledgeable attorney can make all the difference when it comes to the outcome of your case.

Theft crimes in South Florida range from shoplifting to burglary and robbery. Sometimes these charges are filed based on weak circumstantial evidence which can be overcome by a strong legal team willing to put in the work to prove your innocence. Given the consequences these charges have on future employment opportunities, it is critical to make the State prove their case and hire attorneys who care about your future.

White Collar and Tax Fraud Cases regularly include crimes such as fraud, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion. A lot of work goes into building these cases and law enforcement may develop tunnel vision with respect to exculpatory evidence which should lead them to drop their cases. A conscientious legal team can often develop a powerful defense based on these oversights and biases in the course of hyper-technical prosecutions. Although we have all heard that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” rare exceptions to this for specific, complex regulations and in the context of tax fraud.

Notable Cases

State of Florida v. Caputo (23-1820CF10A): Dismissed June 5, 2025. Our client was falsely arrested in Broward County for DUI and then severely beaten that night by corrections officers while in custody. Six months later she was formally charged with Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, an offense carrying a mandatory felony conviction. The officers made no mention whatsoever of the fact that they beat her in the official police report. We obtained video showing that the officers employed excessive force prior to her committing any kind of battery. We filed a Motion to Dismiss alleging outrageous government conduct. The State dismissed the charges. The corrections officers were subsequently arrested and booked in the same jail where they had beaten our client. The agency is currently being sued for police misconduct.

State of Florida v. Barone (2023-CF-003618-AX): Dismissed February 17, 2026. Our client was falsely charged with a first-degree felony for Exploitation of the Elderly in Marion County (Ocala), Florida. The State alleged that Ms. Barone had misappropriated more than $168,000 for her personal benefit from the alleged victim, who was a family friend living in her parents’ home. We worked with the client to assemble affidavits, receipts, photographs, audio recordings and sworn statements showing that the accused had made these payments in cash at the alleged victims’ request and on his behalf before reimbursing herself. At a deposition in Philadelphia, the alleged victim recanted most of the accusations included the police report. Under heavy questioning, the lead detective admitted that 12 of 13 sections of transactions taken from bank statements in the State’s discovery “were no longer of concern.” Defense counsel then prepared a 17-page memo, itemizing each transaction, which showed that based upon the State’s own evidence, the victim owed the defendant money, in fact. The detective had never investigated our client’s side of the story, nor linked the suspect cash transfers to the purchases. After two-and-a-half years, the State dismissed the case in its entirety. Ms. Barone is currently seeking compensation for lost income and gross police misconduct.

State v. Michilena: (230009893CF10A): Resolved 6/2/2025. Our client was initially charged with Aggravated Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, a first-degree felony requiring a mandatory minimum of 5 years in Florida state prison. He was also charged with Armed Trafficking in Fentanyl, a first-degree felony punishable by life and carrying a seven-year mandatory minimum based on the quantity of drugs. He was also charged with Armed Trafficking in MDMA, LSD and an array of other drug charges. The police had been tracking the young man, slammed a police truck into his Nissan Sentra and then claimed that he had attempted to ram his vehicle into them in a bid to escape. Video obtained from the defendant’s vehicle revealed a vast amount of perjured police testimony. The aggravated battery on a police officer charge was dismissed, the drug charges were dropped down to attempts and our client avoided convictions and jail time with respect to all charges.

State v. Tyler (23000983CF10A): Resolved 8/9/2023. Our client was charged with an array of offenses for drug dealing, including Trafficking in Fentanyl, which carried a three-year minimum mandatory conviction based on the amount. After police pulled him over at night for changing lanes without signaling, officers approached his vehicle with loaded guns and immediately broke the driver’s side window to pull him out of the vehicle and down on to the ground. Officers claimed at deposition that they immediately broke the window because they thought the was reaching for a gun. Defense counsel disproved this claim by creating synchronized compilation of slow-motion videos taken from various officers’ body-worn-cameras, which showed that the defendant’s hands were occupied by cellphone and a lit cigarette during the short time-period in question. The client received no jail time and two years of probation on reduced charges.

State v. Cassas (23-CF009212): Our client, who ran a medical spa providing non-surgical aesthetics and skin care, was charged with two felony counts of false use of personal identification as a result of a personal dispute with a disgruntled former employee and a business associate. These individuals, who had also been patients, contacted law enforcement after trespassing into her office to obtain vials and medical files which they claimed proved she had illegally used their personal information to obtain prescriptions for her practice. One employee claimed she had never been a patient and the other trespassed and stole HIPPA protected medical records. We also obtained eyewitness testimony that these prescriptions had been approved by the so-called victims, which provided a complete defense to the charges. The State dismissed the case in its entirety.